The present invention relates to nursers and the like, and in particular to a one-piece nipple/collar therefor.
Nursers for infants, and other similar applications, are well-known in the art, and typically include a nipple that is detachably mounted on the neck of a nurser bottle by a separate, internally threaded collar. While such nurser constructions have proven quite effective, certain inconveniences still exist. For example, to properly clean the parts of a conventional nurser, the nipple must first be disassembled from the collar, so that all surfaces of the two separate parts can be thoroughly washed and sanitized. After the collar and nipple parts have been cleaned and disinfected, they must be reassembled prior to attaching the same to a nurser bottle. The additional handling associated with this process is both time consuming and tedious, and can also led to contamination of the nipple and/or collar during reassembly. The separate nurser parts are relatively small in size, thereby making the cleaning of the same even more difficult. When cleaning conventional nurser parts in an automatic dishwasher, the individual nurser nipples and collars tend to become displaced from their original position in the washer, and often drop to the bottom of the washer where they can be damaged by the heating coil. Since a separate nipple can be removed from its associated collar even when attached to a nurser bottle, inadvertent leakage can sometimes occur, and may even present a safety hazard under exceptional circumstances.